Bicycle wheel levers are known in the art to remove bicycle tires from bicycle wheel rims. These prior art bicycle wheel levers generally are comprised of an elongate rod having a first flattened end and a second flattened end. The second flattened end is angled with respect to the elongate rod and has a relatively small opening therein. The opening encompasses almost the entire width of the second flattened end, and the second flattened end has a rib portion adjacent the opening.
In operation, bicycle wheel levers known in the art are employed to remove tires by placing the first flattened end of the bicycle wheel lever between the tire and the wheel rim. Next, the elongate rod of the bicycle wheel lever is pivoted toward a wheel spoke and the second flattened end is secured to a wheel spoke by placing the spoke through the opening in the second flattened end.
These conventional bicycle wheel levers suffer from the following limitations. Forcing a spoke through the relatively shallow, constraining opening of the second flattened end of the bicycle tire lever often causes bending, scoring, or breaking of the spoke. Also, the extreme forces employed often result in damage to the tire or rim. Finally, it is unduly difficult to secure a wheel spoke in the constraining opening of the second flattened end of the bicycle tire lever due to the large amount of torque and resistive forces encountered upon pivotal movement of the elongate rod, and the spoke often becomes disengaged from the shallow opening of the tire lever.
A need exists for the above type of bicycle wheel lever wherein the bicycle spoke can be braced at numerous positions on the bicycle wheel lever to ensure secure attachment therewith such that excessive torquing and forces are avoided which bend, score, or break the spoke and which make securing the bicycle wheel lever to the spoke unduly difficult.